Iridescent
by xfucktheglasses
Summary: Good morning, starshine. The Earth says hello. —SasuSaku.
1. Shadow

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

Sakura's office was always a mess.

Papers were everywhere and her stethoscope was always lost somewhere in the piles and, most of the time, she was never in there. Normally, she was off scurrying around taking care of patients or performing surgeries to an ANBU brought in from a mission gone bad.

But there were rare times where Sasuke would appear in a crouch, on her office's windowsill, and see her slumped on her seat, head drooped over her documents and fast asleep.

The first time he found her like that, she'd been curled up into a ball; her chin resting on the triangular space in between her knees and pen still gripped in her hands. He'd just arrived from a mission and decided to stop by to see what she'd been up to, which, amusingly, hadn't been much.

Now, Sasuke landed on the sill of the open window, jounin uniform dirty and torn and with scratches and blood and dirt smudged on his face. The room's lights were on and papers littered everywhere; his keen eyes caught the stethoscope under a pyramid of scrolls and it was lacking a small pink-haired medic-nin.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and made himself comfortable, leaning his back against one end of the window and stretching a leg out to the other, his other leg bent at the knee and supporting his arm.

He didn't think he'd stay like that for long (unless, you know, Sakura was performing some sort of surgery; he heard ANBU were being rushed in every five seconds).

And yet… He'd fallen into a, surprisingly, light sleep after watching the village's buzz for a mere five minutes.

Sasuke only figured out he'd dozed off when he felt the weight of a shadow over him, shadowing the lights' glare. His eyes had snapped open and his head had sharply turned to the left and his lips were promptly pressed against another pair and—

"Hello there, Sasuke," Sakura chirped, smiling and pulling away. "Was your mission a success?"

Sasuke grunted and slipped inside, leaning against her desk and watching her scurry about, looking for the right set of document-filled manila folders. Sakura was so messy; her OCD would eat her alive at any given day and force her to stay over night to fix and clean and organize until Sasuke had to wander over and force her to go home.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Oh, would you help me find—"

Sasuke pointed a finger, noncommittally, towards the stack near the door.

Sakura scurried over it and threw him a grin over her shoulder. "Thank you, Sasuke, see you at home!"


	2. Scar

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

Sometimes, when Sasuke wasn't really thinking, he'd run the very tip of his fingers across Sakura's flat abdomen.

His eyes would be trained on the dark, shadowed wall, half-asleep and half-awake.

The jagged scar, there, always seemed to fascinate him and piss him off all in one. As amazing as medic-nin's were, they could heal but they couldn't get the scars to disappear. That scar… Sasuke always wondered how long that scar was there for. Sakura never really liked to talk about it; the most she ever told him was that it was fatal but nothing she couldn't handle.

So Sasuke always ran his fingers against it, subconsciously, and painted scenarios where she'd get it.

It was always a stab; sometimes with a fuuma-shuriken, sometimes with a kunai, and sometimes with a katana. Sakura would always take a soft gulp of surprise before blood would spill out of her mouth and she'd fall to the ground, on her knees, hands holding onto the weapon penetrating her.

Sometimes, he'd scratch at it when the voice in his head sneered that he hadn't been there to save her. And then his anger with himself would get the best of him and he'd roll to his stomach, arms wrapped around his pillow and refuse to acknowledge that there was someone sleeping at his side.


	3. Hug

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

Sasuke had another mission.

He was sporting his jounin uniform, his flak jacket still resting on the bed as he packed his pouch with extra chakra strings and made _sure_ his kunais and shurikens were nice and sharp. He stood in the middle of the quiet, lonely bedroom, his attention on his arm wraps as he rewrapped them around his hands, extra tight around his wrists.

Everything seemed in order, he decided, shrugging his flak jacket on and agreeing with himself that he was ready to meet up with Naruto, Kakashi and Sai.

He cracked his knuckles and cracked the kinks out of his neck as he exited the room.

The house was quiet.

It was always quiet, when Sasuke had a mission.

He swallowed, thickly and spared a glance to the kitchen.

Sakura stood against the counter, a mug with what was probably tea in her hands.

She looked up at him.

"I'm leaving, now," he said, slowly.

She nodded, setting the mug down and trailing him as he walked to the front door.

Sasuke paused and looked at her over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised. She was biting at the inside of her cheek, staring at the ground and rubbing her hands together. Such a weird habit of hers, he commented, not for the first time.

He turned back to the front, counting the seconds before she made a move.

When she hugged him, from behind, she said all she wanted to say.

_I want to go. I want to go. I want to go._


	4. Pleasure

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

He hovered above her, his forelocks hiding his cryptic eyes. His lips were mildly swollen and half-parted as he exhaled.

Sasuke always liked watching Sakura, when she was underneath him.

His touch was never clumsy; never that of an expert, either.

He dipped down and ghosted his lips against her jawline, smirking at her heavy breathing. His nails scraped against her sides and he listened to her breathing quickening.

It didn't take much for Sasuke to memorize what way to caress the sharp angles and soft curves of Sakura's body.


	5. Sauce

note; i complete rewrote this one.

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

They sat in silence on their couch, takeout spread in front of them; there was a nasty bruise on Sakura's cheek and one of Sasuke's eyes was swollen shut. Blood coated them like raindrops from a spring shower.

Sakura sat back, dropping her chopsticks onto the messy coffee table.

"I can't eat anymore."

He stared a her with his good eye, lightly moving his jaw as he chewed. "You said you were starving."

"I am," she shifted, "but I can't move my jaw."

Sasuke shrugged a shoulder and continued to eat; this was close to becoming a ritual. They trained and the challenge always got the best of them to the point where they'd hurt each other and cause some bleeding or sprained limbs. And then they'd eat; Sasuke would admit watching the stand owner's eyes grow wide at the blood and dirt and sweat covering them, as they stopped by to buy food, was rather amusing.

"Sauce, pass me my tea."

He reached over for the cup and then paused.

"Wait, what did you call me?"


	6. Red

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

On the rare occasions where Sasuke was home, he tended to lounge on the couch and read scrolls; sometimes, he'd be taking notes on a jutsu he was trying to perfect. Sometimes, though, he was too lazy and he'd just read copies of mission reports, trying to see what could have been done better.

On those occasions, Sakura was the one to come home past midnight; a shadow in the dark.

Sasuke would still be on the couch, in the darkness with only the lamp on the desk beside the couch to illuminate what he was reading. He would always look up at her figure from under his lashes, through his messy-forelocks that fell over his eyes.

She'd turn on the lights and give him a crooked smile, looking drunk on anesthetics and bad news.

Her hands would be stained red with the remnants of blood she couldn't wash off; the red crusts under her fingernails prominent against her pale skin.

Sasuke liked to stare at them; tiny and stained with mistakes.


	7. Resent

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

"Hey," she smiled at him from over her shoulder. She was sitting on the couch, reading a book; it was rare when Sakura was actually at home, relaxing. Sasuke didn't really think he could remember when the last time they were both at home, during the day, was. "Where'd you go, silly?"

Sasuke tensed. How should he put this…

"With Kakashi, Sai and the dobe…"

His eyes caught her grow stiff. He knew she would; these conversations were always best avoided, but every time they surfaced, they could do everything but. Sasuke readied himself for the arsenal of anger and that haze that would cloud Sakura's eyes.

"Oh."

Sasuke swallowed and walked towards the kitchen, guard on overdrive.

"I see."

He nodded, "Mission report."

The book on her lap was snapped shut.

Her voice was soft and thick with resent as she whispered, "I'm part of Team Seven, too…"

Sasuke sighed, "Sakura, quit it."

"It's true!"

"No one said it _wasn't_." They were at the part where he began to lose his patience, now. Sasuke already knew these scenes by memory. "But when was the last time you went on a mission with us?"

"You're all jounins!"

"Then get off your ass, train and pass that fucking exam."

It went quiet, then.

Sasuke slumped his shoulder and put the water bottle in his hands down on the counter, walking over towards Sakura just in time to catch those hazy green eyes glaring at him with unshed tears before getting up and heading towards the door.

"Sakura, I'm…"

And she was gone.

Sasuke sighed.


	8. Grace

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

She aimed a punch.

He could see the chakra surrounding it like a cocoon just as he escaped out of her line of fire. He twisted in mid air, katana glinting in the moon's lighting as he raised it up; just the mere tip of the blade threatening her jugular would bag this win for him.

But Sakura seemed to know what he was up to.

She ducked and swiped her leg out as she twirled on the ground, weight supported by her hands.

Sasuke lost his balance but was quick to stab his Kusanagi onto the ground, allowing it to support his weight as he struck her with a kick.

She slammed against a tree, breaking it in half and falling into the gap, lost in the splinters and the dust.

He was inches away from her when she stood in an unbalance stance. Yet, she looked graceful, right then, bleeding from the scratches on her arms and legs and a cut on the side of her lip. Her chest was rising and falling in the attempts to regain her breath.

Sasuke raised his blade, twisting his wrist to get the sharp edge to hover just a scant breath from her throat.

He smirked as her eyes hardened and lowered his head to rest against her shoulder.


	9. Green

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

"Ohh," Sakura gasped, breaking away from his side and heading over to yet another stand.

Sasuke sighed, lowly, his eyes following her with the same blank expression he always wore. His hands were filled with bags upon bags of what Sakura deemed completely necessary to have at home. Restocking and shopping was not Sasuke's favorite part of life.

Not with Sakura buying amounts of food that fed the entire village rather than just two people.

"How much," he heard her ask as he slowly approached, shifting the bags to one hand so he could swat his messy forelocks out of his eyes with the other.

He peered over her shoulder at what had grabbed her attention, an elegant brow raised and one his gloved hands stuffed into the pockets of his nin-pants.

"Apples," he commented.

Sakura smiled and looked up at him. "Don't they look just so yummy?"

While Sakura was a big fan of apples, Sasuke didn't seem to have much of an opinion on them. He gave a slow nod, eyes raking the different colors and different names.

"Which ones, dear," the lady maintaining the stand asked with a smile.

He watched Sakura purse her lips, her hand coming up to cradle her chin. Sasuke rolled his eyes; it was always the same.

"The green ones," he said, nudging his chin to the basket with shiny green apples. He didn't really like apples, but the green ones were always delicious.

She turned to look at him, again, while the lady packed up the fruits. "Green apples?"

He nodded.

"Mm, they are the yummiest." She thanked the woman, handing her the money before leading them both away from the stand. Sasuke followed her, grabbing the bag of apples out of her grasp and adding them to the bags he was carrying.


	10. Talk

note; so on the first time i posted this, there was controversy about it because of sasuke's desire to rebuild his clan. but you have to keep in mind this is post-canon, post-whatever-happens-in-the-manga. he's/they're older now. and views change and mistakes and life changes people. so yeah!

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

"I don't want kids."

They were sitting on the destroyed clearing of Training Ground Three. He was leaning his weight on one arm, his chest rising and falling erratically and his face shadowed by his messy hair. Sasuke swallowed, dropping down onto his back and ignoring the ringing silence in favor of concentrating on how the grass tickled and itched at his bare back.

He'd accidentally overheard Sakura talking to Ino about this subject, given how the blond was currently eating for two. Her back had been to him, therefore rendering him blind to her reaction of the matter at hand. And just…

Sasuke didn't want kids.

He didn't want her to entertain the thought if all it would leave her with what would be disillusion.

"Hmm," she finally hummed after a while.

Sasuke lifted his head up and spared her a glance; she was leaning against one of the destroyed trees, eyes closed and the tip of one of her thin fingers grazing the dried blood on her left cheek. What the hell was he supposed to depict out of that expression?

"Sakura."

"It's okay," she shifted, "Kids are cute and adorable, but… Having one…"

He lifted his head up, again, and stared at her.

"It doesn't fit in our lifestyle," she smiled at him and he wondered, for a moment, if it was a sad smile or not.

He nodded, slowly, his eyes still trying to read her.


	11. Convince

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

It was almost three in the morning.

Sasuke wasn't on commission due to an injury Kakashi and Sai had acquired during their last mission and therefore had the entire day to himself. Which wasn't really at all a positive thing, given that Sakura was on hospital duty and there wasn't really much he could do but train with Naruto for half of the day.

But it was almost three in the morning and Sakura still wasn't home.

Now, Sasuke knew these things were bound to happen; as the prestige apprentice of the soon-to-retire Godaime Hokage, Sakura was more than needed during critical surgeries or to attend to injured shinobi rushing in at every second.

But this was ridiculous.

He stood, slipping his shirt on and making his way to the door, for his boots, lips set in a neutral frown. This _always_ happened.

In a matter of seconds, he was but a blur across the rooftops. When he landed on the windowsill of Sakura's office, he was not at all surprised to find the lights on and the room more of a mess than it normally was. Sakura sat right in the middle of the floor, surrounded by papers and folders and clips.

Sasuke was not amused.

"Sakura."

She looked up, her surprised expression quickly turning to a bashful one just as soon as she saw him.

"Sasuke!" She looked down at her papers before grinning up at him. There were bags under her eyes, Sasuke noticed as he slipped inside, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Let's go," he said, low voice steady with minor annoyance.

"But I have to clean all this! Organization, Sasuke—cataloging!"

"It's _three in the morning_," he stressed, walking until he was standing in front of her. "C'mon."

She looked up at him from under her lashes, choppy forelocks falling over her eyes; Sasuke knew that look, too.

He stared right back at her, blank faced.

"I'd get done much faster if you stayed and help me," she said, softly.

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"My office would look so… Clean," she went on, innocently, "And my desk. All the space it'd have."

His brow furrowed.

There was silence for a moment as Sasuke looked around and at the scrolls, the documents, the folders and the sort. A moment later he found himself sighing and crouching down to help her.


	12. Flowers

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

Sakura was furious.

He hadn't seen her all day, but once Sasuke stepped into the apartment, he just knew. He just _knew_. There were flowers set right in the center of the island in the middle of the kitchen, red vase filled with water and a bouquet of flowers that complimented each other.

Flowers… There were _flowers_.

Therefore, Sakura was furious.

It was the only explanation. Sakura was furious over one thing or another or ten, she visited that pregnant blond traitor and exchanged poison formulas and hissed in fury and then returned with a bouquet of flowers.

This wasn't the first time this happened.

Sasuke wasn't the kind to forget things; not important dates, not important occasions… It could mildly get lost in the maelstrom inside his head, but he never _forgot_…

And yet Sakura was furious.

Cautiously, he stepped into the kitchen and neared the island, staring at the posies and other such things with clinical eyes, shoulders squared and lips twisted into a frown.

Vaguely, he wondered if she was even at home; he could feel a surge of chakra but it was far too weak to be Sakura's… Sasuke's brow furrowed as he turned around, pausing mid-step and staring as Sakura swayed at the entrance of the kitchen.

"Sak—"

"I couldn' save 'im."

He caught her before she fell to the ground.


	13. Lamplight

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

She'd been stuck doing some extra paperwork at the hospital.

Sakura just didn't think she'd be out of there at two in the morning. But, as exhausted and weary as she felt, she normally liked leaving the hospital at this hour. The streets were lonely and quiet; the sound of the crickets always seemed to soothe her, strangely.

Besides, she was never _entirely_ alone. ANBU normally patrolled the streets from the rooftops; so it was always like she had a silent companion. It worked out, too, since on most days Sasuke was out on a mission. Kind of like he was now; it'd been two days since he and the rest of Team Seven left on another mission.

Another pointer for her relaxation at staying at work until such hours of the morning.

Sakura closed her eyes and sighed, rolling her shoulders and cracking the kinks out of her neck.

"What are you doing here."

Her eyes snapped open and she almost willed her chakra to coat her fist and punch the living daylights out of…

"Sasuke!"

He was hanging off a lamplight, with concentrated chakra on the soles of his boots to keep him in place. His arms were crossed and he was staring at her with that annoyed look that he seemed to always wear when she did something she really shouldn't have.

Sakura stared at him, left eyebrow twitching and eyes slowly narrowing down. "Don't scare me like that, idiot!"

"I went home and you weren't there."

She eyed his jounin uniform and caught the tears, the dirt and the blood. "I got caught up on some stuff… Will you get down from there?"

In a flash he was standing before her, upside up and with his arms still crossed in front of his chest. Sakura shoved him by the chest, only growing irritated when he barely budged; she growled and returned to her slow strides towards their apartment, with Sasuke following her, like a shadow.

"Did you come to pick me up," she asked, sparing him a glance and pausing until they were walking side by side.

He grunted.

"You're so silly, Sasuke," she said, looping her arm around his and leaning her weight onto him.


	14. Encouragement

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

"I'm participating in the Jounin Exams."

The bickering between Naruto and Sasuke ceased, Sai paused his stirring of his sake and Kakashi lowered his book. She had their attention; could feel their eyes on her. It sent goose-bumps up her arms and caused her fingers to twitch around her sake glass.

The silence remained and Sakura didn't lift her eyes up from the clear substance in front of her.

With four pair of eyes on her, she tried to depict which one was Sasuke's.

Perhaps the most intense; the one that made the small strands of hair on the nape of her neck stand on end. It was the one that made a shiver unknowingly shock her spine and cause her to flinch, not wildly but it was still there, enough for the trained eye of a shinobi to see.

She bit her lip and looked up at them, after some time.

"Whoa, Sakura-chan," Naruto was the one to speak. He was grinning widely, bright blue eyes shining against the dimness of the bar. "S'great!"

They turned back to their drinks after Sai commented as best as he could and Kakashi ruffled her hair, affectionately. There was talk about helping her train and about how to assemble her team; it caused her to feel light enough to float of her seat, any kind of insecurity completely gone.

Sakura swallowed and smiled, and the smile only grew wider when she felt Sasuke's arm against hers and his smirk against her shoulder when no one was looking.


	15. Collapse

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

Sakura jumped off the bed as soon as she heard the bang. She grabbed the kunai under her pillow and slowly began to exit the room—her heartbeat was escalating and she felt nervous.

Intruder or—

Her heart leapt to her throat and her chest all but collapsed at the sight of Sasuke, leaning against the wall, trying to keep himself upwards. It was—What was he… He wasn't due back until tomorrow morning!

"Sasuke!"

She ran to his side, her mouth going dry as she wrapped one of his bloody arms around her shoulders and used her inhuman strength to lift him upwards. His eyes were closed and there was a nasty gash over his right eyebrow—

"You're supposed to check into the hospital, Sasuke," she said, trying to ignore the sting at the bridge of her nose —one that promised tears—as she led him to their room. "God, are you okay? You were ambushed, weren't you? God, god… Okay… I just…"

She fled, dropping things and ignoring their shatter as she tried to grab all the supplies she'd need. She ran back into the room with a bottle of alcohol and a bag filled with wads of cotton as well as a roll of gauze.

She dropped everything onto the ground as she knelt down by his side. Sakura was chewing on her lower lip, wetting a wad of cotton with alcohol.

Sasuke shifted, groaning in pain—god, he probably had some broken bones…

She tried not to cry as she began to clean the blood off his body.


	16. Hill

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

The sun was out—blazing hot; it almost felt like an inferno. It was Konoha's summer during winter and Sasuke hated it more than anything.

He sat on top of a hill, trying to hide under a tree from the sun's cruel sun rays. He leaned back, supporting his weight with his elbows and extending his knees outwards. He closed his eyes and tried to envision the storms he encountered on his days as a rogue.

Next to him, Sakura shifted, upper body kept upright by her palms dug into the grass. Sasuke opened his eyes and watched her, her eyes closed and her short pink hair blowing around her with the hill's soft breeze.

It was kind of surreal—this image.

"I love the sun," she whispered, sitting upright and reaching up, towards the sky.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, soft smirk playing at the corner of his lips. He hated the sun, but he'd let her live her moment.

They sat there—one of the rare times where they were both available—and soaked up the sun. After a while, Sakura laid her head on his lap, arms still up and trying to grab at the sky. She filled the air with rambles about shapes and animals and constellations that weren't there, but still there—hiding.

And he let her, because he could. Because her voice was a reassurance—of what, Sasuke didn't like to think about it. But he liked to hear her talk.


	17. Bed

—iridescent❤  
_good morning, starshine_

Sakura wasn't the kind of girlfriend to demand he sleep on the couch when they weren't talking to each other.

Sometimes, Sasuke didn't really know if this was a good or bad thing. Still being in the same room with her when they were both so brittle with pent up frustration was kind of difficult. Walking around each other, as they did their nightly routines before bed, was hard and if they touched, their skin prickled like frostbite.

They were both silent; deadly silent.

And they slept on the same bed, on their sides with their backs facing each other and their legs bumping into each other with every shift.


	18. Shower

TO PAIGE BECAUSE SHE ENCOURAGED ME.

**—**iridescent**❤  
**_good morning, starshine_

It was three in the morning.

Sakura sighed, throwing her head back and letting the water pelt her face, eyes closed and hair weighing her head down. She ran her hands up and down her limbs, making sure every last crust of dried blood—blood that was not hers—disappeared, until she was sure her body was clean and even then, she continued to wash herself.

Slowly, her muscles began to relax; all the stress from the hospital dissipating along with the steam clouding the bathroom. Showers at this hour of the night were always the best—relaxing and quiet, enough to cause gooseflesh to rise up on her skin. She shivered at the thought, lowering her head and looking down at her bare body.

Her hands ran across her torso, fingering the ghost of a scar from a battle years ago, running across her jutting hipbones, down to her where torso met her thighs and then dipped down in between. One of her two hands ran back up her stomach, fingers feathering the sensitive spots and causing her to arch her back, lips opened in a silent gasp.

She remained like that, touching herself, for what felt like forever but could have been no more than a few minutes. Sakura was engrossed, enjoying, what she was doing, gasps hitching in her throat—teeth biting her lower lip to keep her mouth closed.

She didn't hear the bathroom door open, didn't hear the heavy thuds of drenched clothes fall to the ground, didn't hear the shower curtain part but she felt arms encircle her. Arms she knew too well, gruff with battle scars and sharp lines of toned muscles.

His hands slowly slid down her body, as if trying to remember something he'd forgotten, until they met up with her own hands and he cupped her, his fingers pushing hers out of the way and filling her up in ways she couldn't on her own. Sakura leaned her head back against his chest, a gasp managing to escape her.

Pinkish-red water flowed down the drain as the water washed Sasuke's body, but neither seemed to pay much attention to it.


End file.
